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CNN Live Today
French Food Paradox
Aired September 02, 2003 - 11:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now it's time for today's "Daily Dose."
There has been a lot of talk about how the French can eat fatty foods, drink red wine and still stay slender, particularly when you contrast their health with Americans with a similar diet, but they end up weighing more. Well, what if the real answer was that the French just eat less than Americans?
Joining us live today from Philadelphia is Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Thanks so much for being with us today. We appreciate your time.
PAUL ROZIN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Good morning.
COLLINS: This is an interesting study. Talk to us a little bit about what it found.
ROZIN: Well, first, you have to understand that people eat what you put in front of them. If you put good food in front of people, they'll eat it.
And in our past environment, in our human history, we had to work to get the food. So there was something intervening. But now we are surrounded by delicious piles of food. And what we do is, we eat them. Sara Dow and I did a study some years ago in which you took amnesiac patients who can't remember that they ate. And we gave them a second lunch. And they ate the whole second lunch. And then we brought them a third lunch and they ate it, because it was there and it looked good.
So we think that one reason that the French are thinner than we are is because they serve each other less food and therefore they eat less food.
COLLINS: I also thought it was interesting how you did this comparison. I understand that it was -- you looked at the size of restaurant meals, the size of single servings, and also cookbook portions.
ROZIN: Yes.
Kim Capnick (ph) and Aaron Pete (ph), two University of Pennsylvania graduates, went to Paris -- and, of course, they come from Philadelphia -- and weighed the food in comparable restaurants, including the same chain, same McDonald's, and in comparable, say, pizza and Chinese restaurants. And then they went to a supermarket in Philadelphia and one in Paris and looked at the size of the individual served foods.
For example, a yogurt container in Paris is about this size. It's about a quarter of a pound. And in France, it's about this size, which is sort of standard yogurt size. So, in the United States, it is twice the size of a French one. So, if you get a yogurt, you just eat twice as much in the United States.
COLLINS: OK, understood. But what about the French pastries and the red wine?
ROZIN: Well, first of all, the French drink more wine than we do. And that has some calories. And, of course, they eat some very rich food, but they just eat less of it.
It's basically Newton's laws. If you take in less calories, you weigh less. For example, if we in the United States could reduce by 10 percent our portion size and eat 10 percent less, keeping everything else the same, we would lose about 20 pounds a year.
COLLINS: And the pastries?
ROZIN: Just eat a small pastry. That's the secret. Don't avoid chocolate. Just eat in moderation.
COLLINS: One last question for you. If you go to a French restaurant here in America and you get the portion size, is it smaller than here as well, or is it actually only in France, when you go there and eat their foods?
ROZIN: Well, of course, American French restaurants have to cater to American tastes.
COLLINS: Right.
ROZIN: So I think their portions are somewhat smaller, but they also are larger than in France, I think, because that's what the audience expects.
But we shouldn't have to expect that. If you think about it, just before you finish a meal at home in a restaurant, say you stopped and there was no food left, when there's a little -- a couple of spoons left, you wouldn't even notice it.
COLLINS: OK. All right. We appreciate you being with us, Paul Rozin, psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
ROZIN: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thanks so very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 2, 2003 - 11:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now it's time for today's "Daily Dose."
There has been a lot of talk about how the French can eat fatty foods, drink red wine and still stay slender, particularly when you contrast their health with Americans with a similar diet, but they end up weighing more. Well, what if the real answer was that the French just eat less than Americans?
Joining us live today from Philadelphia is Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Thanks so much for being with us today. We appreciate your time.
PAUL ROZIN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Good morning.
COLLINS: This is an interesting study. Talk to us a little bit about what it found.
ROZIN: Well, first, you have to understand that people eat what you put in front of them. If you put good food in front of people, they'll eat it.
And in our past environment, in our human history, we had to work to get the food. So there was something intervening. But now we are surrounded by delicious piles of food. And what we do is, we eat them. Sara Dow and I did a study some years ago in which you took amnesiac patients who can't remember that they ate. And we gave them a second lunch. And they ate the whole second lunch. And then we brought them a third lunch and they ate it, because it was there and it looked good.
So we think that one reason that the French are thinner than we are is because they serve each other less food and therefore they eat less food.
COLLINS: I also thought it was interesting how you did this comparison. I understand that it was -- you looked at the size of restaurant meals, the size of single servings, and also cookbook portions.
ROZIN: Yes.
Kim Capnick (ph) and Aaron Pete (ph), two University of Pennsylvania graduates, went to Paris -- and, of course, they come from Philadelphia -- and weighed the food in comparable restaurants, including the same chain, same McDonald's, and in comparable, say, pizza and Chinese restaurants. And then they went to a supermarket in Philadelphia and one in Paris and looked at the size of the individual served foods.
For example, a yogurt container in Paris is about this size. It's about a quarter of a pound. And in France, it's about this size, which is sort of standard yogurt size. So, in the United States, it is twice the size of a French one. So, if you get a yogurt, you just eat twice as much in the United States.
COLLINS: OK, understood. But what about the French pastries and the red wine?
ROZIN: Well, first of all, the French drink more wine than we do. And that has some calories. And, of course, they eat some very rich food, but they just eat less of it.
It's basically Newton's laws. If you take in less calories, you weigh less. For example, if we in the United States could reduce by 10 percent our portion size and eat 10 percent less, keeping everything else the same, we would lose about 20 pounds a year.
COLLINS: And the pastries?
ROZIN: Just eat a small pastry. That's the secret. Don't avoid chocolate. Just eat in moderation.
COLLINS: One last question for you. If you go to a French restaurant here in America and you get the portion size, is it smaller than here as well, or is it actually only in France, when you go there and eat their foods?
ROZIN: Well, of course, American French restaurants have to cater to American tastes.
COLLINS: Right.
ROZIN: So I think their portions are somewhat smaller, but they also are larger than in France, I think, because that's what the audience expects.
But we shouldn't have to expect that. If you think about it, just before you finish a meal at home in a restaurant, say you stopped and there was no food left, when there's a little -- a couple of spoons left, you wouldn't even notice it.
COLLINS: OK. All right. We appreciate you being with us, Paul Rozin, psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
ROZIN: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thanks so very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
